Nonvolatile memory cells that are electrically programmable and erasable can be realized as charge-trapping memory cells, which comprise a memory layer sequence of dielectric materials with a memory layer between confinement layers of dielectric material having a larger energy band gap than the memory layer. The memory layer sequence is arranged between a channel region within a semiconductor body and a gate electrode provided to control the channel by means of an applied electric voltage. Examples of charge-trapping memory cells are the SONOS memory cells, in which each confinement layer is an oxide and the memory layer is a nitride of the semiconductor material, usually silicon (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,768,192, and 6,011,725, which are incorporated herein by reference).
Charge carriers are accelerated from source to drain through the channel region and gain enough energy to be able to penetrate the lower confinement layer and to be trapped within the memory layer. The trapped charge carriers change the threshold voltage of the cell transistor structure. Different programming states can be read by applying the appropriate reading voltages.
A publication by B. Eitan et al., “NROM: a Novel Localized Trapping, 2-Bit Nonvolatile Memory Cell” in IEEE Electron Device Letters, volume 21, pages 543 to 545 (2000), describes a charge-trapping memory cell with a memory layer sequence of oxide, nitride and oxide, which is especially adapted to be operated with a reading voltage that is reverse to the programming voltage (reverse read). The oxide-nitride-oxide layer sequence is especially designed to avoid the direct tunneling regime and to guarantee the vertical retention of the trapped charge carriers. The oxide layers are specified to have a thickness of more than 5 nm.
The memory layer can be substituted with another dielectric material, provided the energy band gap is smaller than the energy band gap of the confinement layers. The difference in the energy band gaps should be as great as possible to secure a good charge carrier confinement and thus a good data retention. When using silicon dioxide as confinement layers, the memory layer may be tantalum oxide, cadmium silicate, titanium oxide, zirconium oxide or aluminum oxide. Also intrinsically conducting (non-doped) silicon may be used as the material of the memory layer.
A semiconductor memory device comprises an array of memory cells provided for the storage of information and an addressing circuitry that is located in a peripheral area. CMOS field-effect transistors are important logic components of the addressing circuits. Source and drain regions of these field-effect transistors are arranged at a certain distance from the gate electrodes. In the production process, therefore, sidewall spacers at flanks of the gate electrode stacks are used to implant the source/drain regions so that the pn junctions between the doped regions and the basic semiconductor material are located at a distance from the gate electrode. To this end, a nitride liner is deposited on the surfaces of the substrate or semiconductor body and the gate electrode stacks. This liner protects the areas of shallow trench isolations between the devices and serves as an etching stop layer for the RIE (reactive iron etching) of the oxide spacers. After the implantations of the source/drain regions have taken place, the oxide spacers are removed, usually by means of wet chemical etching. The oxide spacers are preferably formed as TEOS (tetraethylorthosilicate) spacers, and the oxide is applied directly onto the nitride liner. The oxide can be removed selectively to the nitride of the liner. Therefore, the nitride liner is suitable as an etching stop layer in this production step.
However, a nitride liner, which is applied all over the surface of the device and thus covers also the area of the memory cell array, shows negative effects on the performance of the memory cell transistors. The nitride liner is directly adjacent to the wordline stack of the memory cells and is in contact with the memory layer sequence, which is usually oxide/nitride/oxide. This is supposed to cause poor values of retention after cycling (RAC), which is one of the key parameters to be optimized in a charge-trapping memory device. Insufficient RAC values are probably related to a high trapping density of charge carriers in the nitride liner and/or to high mechanical stress caused by the nitride liner being deposited directly on the memory layer sequence so that a formation of leakage paths in the memory layer sequence may result.